As a board member I have my shortcomings, but a lack of sincerity is not among them. Every action I have taken has been out of sincere consideration of the best education and financial interests of the district. At a recent school board meeting, school board President Susan Fox made a baseless accusation that I believe was directed at me, charging that board members are acting out of a desire to be obstructive or play games. I don't want to be accused of misrepresenting these comments, so here is the clip, the rest of the meeting can be found at mononatv.com apologies for the echoing audio):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OXJOJC4Rsc
Here is the background:
At a board meeting in July, we updated school board policy 151, which governs board procedures for adopting and amending policies. This was necessary because policy changes normally come through the recently abolished Policy Committee. During the discussion I suggested we also add language requiring a 2/3rds vote for revisions or deletions of 100 series policies. This is standard language lifted directly from Robert’s Rules of Order relating to bylaws of an organization (our 100 series policies cover board governance, and so function as bylaws. Had our governance policies been titled “Bylaws," then this rule would already have been in place as part of our adherence to Robert’s.)
I offered the amendment to bring us into compliance with Robert’s Rules because it is important that the rules under which we operate have a higher standard of stability and acceptance so that there will be a consensus of buy-in to the results of decisions. A constituent might not agree with a decision, but will be more willing to accept it if the process is stable and sound -- in short, that we've followed board governance policies. I offered the amendment on that particular night because the relevant policy was on the table, so I had been scrutinizing it while keeping in mind the express desire of the board to more closely adhere to Robert’s Rules. In the past such amendments would have been made in the Policy Committee and hashed out there, but as I noted, we no longer have a Policy Committee.
In any event, the amendment passed on a 4-3 vote, and then the revised policy was approved 7-0. At the August 26th meeting, Ms. Fox placed an item to rescind the policy change on the agenda, prompting the discussion referenced above. The motion to rescind failed on a 3-4 vote.
Ms. Fox is entitled to her own opinion, but in my view she is not entitled to use the public platform entrusted to her by the voters to make spurious accusations against members of the board (or anyone else for that matter). Her suggestion that the board members supporting the amendment were acting out of a desire to be obstructive or play games is as offensive as it is false, and the fact that she knows no better than to base such accusations on out of context overheard comments is disappointing.
Do I joke with my colleagues on the board after meetings? You bet; it is my way to try and maintain relationships with people I have to work with in difficult circumstances. Did I express surprise the motion passed? Yes. But does that mean I hought it was in anything but the best interests of the district? Absolutely not.
I don’t ask for or expect an apology from Ms. Fox, but these kinds of inflammatory comments do a disservice for two reasons: they undermine the public trust in the institution and they create animosity that interferes with the functioning of the board. So if any apology is owed, it is to the community.
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23 comments:
Peter-
You are absolutely correct in all of your points, and I support you 100%. Your thoughts on the policy change are right on, and she was wholly inappropriate. I have seen her be inappropriate before, and it saddens me that she is in charge of this board. We are headed downward very quickly. It is very sad.
She does owe the community an apology. Not just because she treated her co-elected officials badly, but because she wasted valuable time and energy making this little speech and trying to reverse the decision. She needs to focus on the big picture- and stop worrying about small stuff. That is what a visionary leader does, and that is what we need.
Peter-
And you taking this to a greater public forum-helps the situation-how?
Did you talk to her about your concerns or just run home at make this post?
I don't flatter myself by thinking this blog is somehow a "greater public forum" than the televised and webcast public school board meetings, but that aside your question is an excellent one, for Susan Fox. If she had concerns she certainly could have addressed them to me privately rather than make baseless attack using the public forum of the school board meeting. I won’t speculate why she chose not to, but the charge was made in public and I feel I have a duty to respond in public. Something I did after 10 days of deliberation to make sure I had the right words.
But that still does not answer the question-I know what you did in public what did you do in private?
Did you act the same way she did?
Also-I listend to the clip-what were"spurious accusations against members"?
This seems like much ado about nothing.
This is illustrative of the problem with the group of people who are representing us. This group lacks a leader who all members can count on to rise above interpersonal issues and to hold each and every member accountable for his/her behavior relative to the group. And where is the superintendent in this mess? Why has he not brought the hammer down on this dysfunction? Yes, yes, I know the board is his boss, but nobody is holding a gun to his head to stay here. If he's worth his salt, he will tell the board enough is enough - either get it together or he will be moving on.
I think the superintendent is trying. Look here:
http://www.mononagrove.org/agendasminutes.cfm
and you'll see the board has held four meetings in the past few months (June 2, 22, 29 and Aug. 4) that are in the realm of board retreats, or board governance workshops (two with a former superintendent with no connection to MG -- an outside expert, so to speak).
I'm guessing the lessons of those meetings -- like, focus on the big picture, let administrators run the district -- have been lost on the current board leadership.
It boggles the mind that those recently elected to the board and now running it -- primarily the two Susans -- talk about wanting to focus on academic achievement and students. Yet so far, most of their time has been spent on ancillary issues like getting rid of board committees, bussing policies, and that old bugaboo -- grade configurations. Too bad that those board members who want to move on to bigger things -- and Peter is one of them -- have to wade through and endure the constant nit-picking of the board's current leadership.
"oo bad that those board members who want to move on to bigger things -- and Peter is one of them -- have to wade through and endure the constant nit-picking of the board's current leadership."
And Peter is trying to move us beyond all of this-how? I think the current post is exhibit C or B on how that is not the case.
"And Peter is trying to move us beyond all of this-how? I think the current post is exhibit C or B on how that is not the case."
The board had passed a policy, fiar and square. The board president -- alone -- brought it back on the agenda, in an effort to rescind the previous action of the board.
Why is she doing this? Listen to her comments -- she's essentially irked by the manner in which it was passed, or the comments made after it was passed, or something.
Why is she wasting this board's time trying to rescind and reverse decisions made by the board just a few weeks earlier? She's the board president, and this is what she devotes precious time at meetings to?
Take a minute to look at some recent board agendas. Better yet, go to a few meetings. Listen to what they talk about -- "I went to this workshop" and "I went to that seminar." Little time is devoted to actually talking about students, their academic achievement, and how this district can improve on what it does. Instead, we get the school board president taking cheap shots at one of her colleagues. Someone ought to start holding these people accountable for their current stewardship of the board.
The airing of dirty laundry saddens me...on both sides of the argument. I wish this could be settled privately. I had such high hopes for this board that they would be different than what had been around before. I am really disappointed by this entire thread being posted and events that led to it being here.
This IS the public's business, it IS the public's school district. The "dirty laundry" should be aired in public for all to see.
I guess I don't believe people bickering back and forth is productive for anything. Solve your issues with each other and work on REAL stuff...like student progress. Sorry I can't agree with you.
part1
Taking my lead from the board I am applying my best “six year old” mindset to my response and since I spent more than two hours watching this “meeting”; I now feel childishly justified in submitting a ridiculously long response.
Is this board ever going to do anything of any consequence, or are they simply going to diddle away their time and ours with this drivel? When did this new board take over? April? Since then has this board done anything related to improving the education of our children? Who sets the agendas for these meetings? What about student achievement, what about curriculum, what about the “long-term strategic plan” that these people have campaigned on? What about something more substantive than Susan Fox repeating post-game locker-room chat!
Once I was able to get over the banality of the agenda (yet again) I was then subjected to the rantings of Susan Fox. Forgive me but did board President Susan Fox actually take the opportunity to publicly tell the board, her peers, that they were dim-witted, befuddled and disingenuous in their actions as board members? (This is of course a summary of what she actually said. She took significantly longer to insult the other board members) Now while I may agree with her, to a point, I think that in this case Susan Fox is pointing her finger and her toxic indictments in the wrong direction.
If board members were so terribly “confused” and if the “process” was so sufficiently lacking as to warrant the time consuming reconsideration of an approved action, isn’t this really a reflection of Susan Fox’s ability to lead the meeting? As president, Susan Fox is responsible to ensure that the “process” is understandable, productive and follows protocol? In this lengthy discourse I did not hear a single word that indicated to me that Susan Fox took any responsibility for the “poor process” which resulted in a vote that she clearly disagreed with. While Susan Fox is entitled to her opinion, and her vote, I do not fell that she is entitled to take advantage of her position and the listening public to insult the intelligence and the integrity of her peers. I was saddened by this and it smacked of her simply trying to further her own agenda. I am surprised at the lack of leadership and maturity displayed by Susan Fox during the original vote and subsequently as she attempted to “undo” a vote that she seems simply to disagree with.
part 2
After watching this meeting in its entirety it is clear that Susan Fox wants the community to question the capabilities and the integrity of our board members. Not necessarily a bad idea, so I did. After serious consideration I am now questioning Susan Fox’s capabilities and integrity as a board member and as a leader. When will Susan Fox have time to address the position to which she was elected? After all she must be very busy as the self appointed moral authority and “good behavior” cop for the board. If the private, legal conversations and activities of her peers are now fair game for Susan Fox’s scrutiny, interpretation, and subsequent public reporting when will she ever find the time to actually get something done for our kids? I now seriously wonder what motivates Susan Fox. As president what has she done in the past months to move an academic agenda along? How do these ridiculous displays serve our kids? I would very much like to see Susan Fox “put on her big girl panties and deal with it”, be part of the solution not part of the problem!
Of course Susan Fox is only one vote. The full board has a responsibility for their votes as well. This was pointed out during this last meeting by several board members,” at any time, any board member could have asked that the issue be tabled or asked for clarification concerning the issue or the process”. I am curious, if “several” board members were as bewildered as Susan Fox portrayed them during her unfortunate rant, why did no one say a thing at the time?
Another rare, albeit fleeting, moment of refreshment came (in this otherwise ugly discourse) when Susan. Manning called for a “point of order”, essentially asking for respectful discourse among the board members. This was a surprise to me in that Ms. Manning seems rarely to stray from the side and opinions of Susan Fox. It was good to see that even Ms. Manning recognized the inappropriateness of Susan Fox’s behavior and called her on the carpet. Kudos to you Ms. Manning for sticking up for your abilities and integrity and those of your fellow board members, good to see!
I have wasted enough of my time and yours on this subject. Now how about doing something worthy our children, our district and our time!
I do not believe the public should be so dismissive of this so-called "bickering" by simply assuming that they can stop it and move on to stuff that matters. If this dysfunction is not resolved, it will begin to have an impact on our students and staff if it hasn't already. This isn't some silly game they are playing at. Tens of millions of dollars of public monies are in the hands of this group, not to mention the responsibility to provide adequate education to our kids.
As far as assigning blame, fairly or unfairly, the buck stops at the top. It is the responsibility of the leadership (the superintendent and the board president) to take the measures necessary to get this situation mediated. Standards of behavior must be agreed upon and individuals must be held accountable. If the leadership cannot get a handle on this, then the other six members of the board must recognize the need for new leadership.
As soon as Board turnover happens in the Spring, there will be significant change. Yay!
As we have seen, change is not the antidote for all ills. You can't just waltz onto a school board and think you will be effective without needing to eat some ample portions of humble pie along the way. Like any endeavor, there is much to learn and the arrogance we are seeing from some of these inexperienced members is a big part of the problem.
re:board turnover in spring.
I doubt it. The number of people running for board drops each year, and if the trend continues, there will be 3 people running for 2 seats. 100% chance that 1 would be an incumbant, and 33% chance that both (assuming Sobol/Manning both run again).
I think there are good people who would run, but they see things like this, and don't want to deal with any of it. Instead we get people who don't let things go, and are more concerned with board politics than with student issues.
I hate to say that it looks like you can add Peter to the list, at least with this post, and I would urge him to return his focus to student issues, as I feel he has done in the past. I understand that sometimes you need to put a stop to things, and that it is hard to be insulted at a public meeting, but you can let people make mistakes in private, and they'll be more likely to work with you in the future. The district needs to see a board who will work together if we'll ever get new people to run.
Children don't grow up when the adults act childish.
"Instead we get people who don't let things go, and are more concerned with board politics than with student issues"
How is that different than what was just done here?
Two thoughts:
First, who are all of you "anonymous" posters? Evolve some vertebrae and sign your name. The first time is the hardest.
Secondly, perhaps it is time to inject a little levity into this discussion. While the Board is certainly made up of good people, this pissing contest that has developed brings to mind a Mark Twain's quote:
"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards."
(From "Following the Equator"; Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar)
Thanks to everyone who posted here. I hope we all feel better. One poster asked a legitimate question: what have I done to promote student achievement. Its a question that deserves an answer and I will when I have a little more time.
Congratulations Peter, I watched the last board meeting and it was the most civil in a long time. It looks like your post has had the desired effect.
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